The IDP (integrated development plan) and municipal budget were only provisionally approved during the last council meeting.
According to Willie Maphosa, the municipal spokesperson, the final approval of the budget depends on the administration submitting certain outstanding reports related to municipal operations.
“Council will reconvene on or after July 14, 2020, to consider these reports and then pronounce substantively on the status of the budget,” Maphosa said.
According to Hans-Jurie Moolman, the caucus leader of the DA, the conditions for the approval of the budget include several reports. Among them are all the overtime that was paid in the previous financial year, any investigations into irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure for the last four fiscal years and full details of all legal proceedings for or against the J.B. Marks Local Municipality in the past five years. They include a detailed breakdown of all private security services rendered to the council in the past three years, full details of all transactions concluded with service providers below the threshold of R30,000 in the past three financial years and all means that were employed in removing household waste, concerning the use of waste trucks for the past two fiscal years. Written proof that all directors and senior managers were appointed in line with the council resolutions is also required.
“It is simple; we want accountability. These are not new issues. They are issues that we have asked to be dealt with for a very long time. We need the reassurance that, if the budget is adopted, these issues have been dealt with properly. It is in the best interest of the community at large,” Moolman said.